Billie Lynn
Coral Gables, Florida
Washing Hate, 2007
Paper pulp from books

I remember immediately opening the box containing the white supremacist books supplied by the Montana Human Rights Network to be transformed into artworks. After reading some of the “literature,” I was shocked by the “rational/logical” mind spewing such hatred and historical distortion. After a short time, I had the undeniable impulse to jump up and wash my hands –I felt so defiled. So, with the help of my students at the University of Miami, we began washing the books and other “hate” materials in soap and water, until they melted and then began forming them into small sculptures. Our hands are imprinted into each of the paper forms, which were lovingly made. Washing Hate is about cleansing and about what it means to pay attention and to love.

Bio
After studying philosophy and religious studies as an undergraduate at Tulane University in New Orleans, Billie Lynn went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute.She is currently an Associate Professor of Sculpture at the University of Miami. She has won several awards and fellowships, including a 2007 South Florida Cultural Consortium grant, along with fellowships from Art Matters and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In 2011, she won the West Prize awarded by the West Collection. She has participated in artist residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

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